Floundering Beneath the Surface
by PagetPaulson
Summary: Twins were never an easy task.


"Abscond."

The teenager looked as if she tried to concentrate or think any harder, that the veins popping out of her forehead would burst. Her face was reddening as she tried to rack her brain for the definition before her hands were thrown up in the air. "I don't know!"

Emily slowly nodded her head before putting the flashcard into the growing pile on their coffee table. "It means to depart suddenly or secretly."

"This is bull," the sixteen year old sighed.

"Hey." Emily's eyes hardened on her daughter, feeling her wife's arms wrapping tighter around her waist. "Watch your mouth."

"Yeah Ry, maybe sew your lips up so you can't say anything ever."

"Watch it," the older woman in the house reprimanded, her hands splaying over her wife's flat stomach. "Come over here and study or your phone is being taken away."

The blonde's eyes widened at the threat. "Mom come on!"

"Now Riley Ann."

Rolling her chocolate brown eyes, Riley trudged over to the living room and sat herself down on the hardwoodened floor, her water bottle clutched firmly in her hand. "This is stupid."

Emily settled her hand over her wife's as she eyed the older twin. "This is going to help you get into college, Riley. Try and take it seriously maybe?"

The blond girl with those searing orbs she had inherited from her mother made a face, looking to her sister who continued to flip through the handmade cards that she had been studying for weeks on end. "And become a crazy nympho like that?"

Ryder's head popped up, hearing her mothers laughing. "Do you even know what nympho means?"

"It's someone who does what you did with Brandon McKeefer last weekend."

Ryder let her jaw drop. "Ri!"

Emily glared at her youngest, sitting up straighter in her wife's hold. "What is she talking about?" she questioned.

The other mother lifted her chin from the younger adult's shoulder, glaring to her two girls. "Didn't you go to a party last weekend?"

"Mom, listen."

"What exactly happened?"

Ryder huffed before throwing down her flashcards. "Nothing! All he did was kiss me!"

The blond girl's eyes widened. "For like thirty minutes!" she accused, throwing her water bottle at her younger sister.

Ryder took the bottle and threw it back at the other girl twice as hard as it was thrown to her. "Screw you, Riley!"

"Hey!" Emily jumped up from her spot on the couch and took the bottle from Riley's hands. "That's enough," she said roughly, putting it down on the coffee table. "Both of you cut it out or you're spending the week in your rooms."

"She started it."

Riley reached up and punched her sister in her thigh. "Fuck off!"

Emily's jaw clenched before grabbing her daughter's shirt and hauling her up off of the floor. "Up to your room."

"But mo-"

"Now Riley."

Sending a glare to her sister, Riley took her iPod from the kitchen counter, where she had left it, before storming up the stairs with her feet stomping hard against the floor.

Emily settled back down against her wife's warm chest and shook her head. "You didn't back me up whatsoever."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I didn't think I needed to."

"Come on," the brunette mother groaned. "You know I hate being the hardass, Erin."

"And I enjoy it?"

Ryder held in her chuckle from her spot on the couch as she cleaned up everything she had been using to study, smiling to her parents. "Mom, you do remember that momma's pregnant, right?"

Emily grinned to her daughter. "Thank you baby." Her head whipped around, feeling the older woman's hands rubbing gently over her barely there stomach. "See?"

Glancing over to the younger of the two teens, Erin arched a brow. "So to defend one mother, you throw the other under the bus?"

Ryder rolled her eyes. "What did you want me to do?"

"See, our daughter agrees with me," the pregnant woman gloated, turning in her wife's arms once Ryder was gone and gently shook at her shoulders. "So be nice!"

Erin watched as her wife's lips pouted, and she leaned in to press hers to them. "Don't be a baby."

"I am not being a baby! I'm _having _a baby, there's a difference." Her head turned away from the older woman's lips when she tried to capture hers once more, and she shook her head. "Don't try and get out of this," she pouted, her hands feebly pushing at Erin's shoulders when she dove in.

Hearing the moan coming from the younger mother, Erin grinned against her lips. "So have you thought of any baby names?"

Emily's face immediately brightened. "Oh, you want to talk about that already?"

"Well, we are alone and seeing as how you've been opposed to sex for the past three months, what else is there to do?"

The brunette frowned. "I hate you," she seethed.

Erin laughed heartily at the words, pressing a long kiss to the corner of her wife's mouth. "No you don't."

Hearing her daughters begin yelling from the second floor and a door slam hard against the wall, Emily's head fell forward and landed on the older woman's warm shoulder. "Tell me the next one won't be as hard as those two."

"I'd love to," the blond sighed, hugging the younger woman to her chest. "But you know our luck."

Emily pulled back and stuck out her bottom lip. "Do you think we can run away without them noticing?"

Erin grinned. "No," she stated warmly, standing with her wife and making their way over to the stairs to go up and separate their fighting daughters. "We chose this so we deal with this." Hearing the groan come from the younger woman, Erin could only smile and wrap her arm tighter around her waist.


End file.
